A close opening weekend at the box office for two really shitty movies

As the summer blockbuster season winds down to its weakest dregs, two terrible movies — one about James Bond as a cowboy battling aliens with a wristwatch that shoots lasers, the other about a group of zany blue anthropomorphic creatures who substitute their name for various other words — vie…

Slam Nuba and the Mercury Cafe slam team head to the nationals

For the two highly respected teams Denver sends to the National Poetry Slam each year, the moment of truth has finally arrived: After a year-long process of elimination, the teams have selected their top five poets of the year and are gearing up today to travel all the way to…

The Denver County Fair in photos

After 150 years of conspicuous absence, the Denver County Fair reared up in the blazing heat of this weekend and shot its oversized, overstimulated load all over the National Western Complex, leaving us spent until next year. It was an epic time and one we won’t soon forget, but just…

The Denver County Fair’s speed-sewing competition was sew intense

Chances are good that you may have missed the most intense part of the Denver County Fair over the weekend. If it wasn’t the animals (and the hipster animals), the floating hamster balls, the Sears representatives casting for a new commercial or eating fried Lucky Charms mixed with Cap’n Crunch,…

Lance Armstrong wins Crested Butte Alpine Odyssey mountain bike race

Look out, Leadville 100 competitors: Lance Armstrong is coming for you again after winning yesterday’s Crested Butte Alpine Odyssey mountain bike race with a time of 4:32:21, three seconds ahead of second-place finisher Greg Krause and third-place finisher Travis Scheefer. The 63-mile Crested Butte Alpine Odyssey is the third and…

Reader: The stigma attached to smoking is saving a lot of lives

The main argument for quitting smoking is that it’s bad for you; indeed, the evidence is well documented. That’s perhaps why a lot of people who don’t smoke have a hard time understanding why smokers continue to smoke despite the risks — and certainly plenty of those people used the…

Crested Butte couple creates a treehouse community in Costa Rica

Erica and Mateo Hogan, a couple from Crested Butte, wanted to create a tropical paradise. “It was very muddy four or five months out of the year in Crested Butte, so we were thinking of buying some property somewhere warm to wait out the muddy season,” Erica says. And after…

Awkward moments: Why I love the shit out of Wet Hot American Summer

Ten years ago, the crew from the State put together a little film called Wet Hot American Summer. You remember the State. A sketch comedy show on MTV that didn’t last long on the channel but will last a lifetime in our hearts? Amid that televised greatness, actor/director/writer David Wain…

This Weekend in Stoke: Top five workouts for this weekend’s warriors

Make it rain! Crankworx Colorado continues today at Winter Park with the Rainmaker Air Downhill Slopestyle qualifiers starting at 12:15 p.m. (finals start on Saturday at 1 p.m.). The weekend is also full of spectator-friendly XC and downhill mountain bike races. Better still: Most of the Trestle Bike Park trails…

Denver County Fair is a hipster paradise for animals and Bat Boy

The headlines across the country this morning proclaim “Denver bets on a county fair, aiming at hipsters,” which would have been fine, except for the fact that the best thing about the County Fair, like all County Fairs, is the animals. Goats and chickens and roosters and adorable rabbits all…

Reader: I think Michael Douglas is selfish and irresponsible

If anyone needed further evidence that the tide of public opinion has turned firmly against smoking cigarettes, look no further than the mass freak-out that ensued when cancer-survivor Michael Douglas was recently spotted possibly smoking a cigarette. As an incorrigible smoker myself, I understand Michael Douglas’s dilemma, and yesterday, I…

Cowboys, aliens and the five worst “vs.” movies of all time

Cowboys and Aliens, out today, tells the charming and classic story of what happens when cowboys meet aliens: They all shoot each other. It stars Daniel Craig, who’s British, which makes sense because while Wyatt Earp was shooting dudes in Tombstone, the Brits were drinking crumpets or whatever and signing…

The Smurfs is this week’s most ridiculous trailer

It’s a mildly fun fact that the original gimmick of the Smurfs — created by Belgian cartoonist Peyo way back in the ’50s — was the “Smurf language”, in which the small blue characters substitute that word for whatever verb, noun or adjective, depending on context. But it didn’t really…

10 things to do for $10 this weekend, July 29-31, 2011

Rent is due on Monday, which means unless you’re some type of money-saving wizard, you’re probably a little short on cash this week. Don’t worry, though: There is a ton of stuff to do this weekend for under ten bucks, including the Denver County Fair, which all on its own…

NFL free agency rumors you won’t find anywhere else

If the NFL lockout bored you, never fear. The perfect antidote is here: a free agency fury as teams sign, cut and trade players madly to adjust their rosters in time for the season. What would usually take months will be condensed into about a week, so players have time…